1919
Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar. Events January : Iolaire sinks.]] * January 1 ** In Scotland, the HMS Iolaire sinks on the rocks; 206 die. ** Edsel Ford succeeds his father as head of the Ford Motor Company. ** Spartacist uprising: Socialist demonstrations in Berlin, Germany turn into an attempted communist revolution. * January 6 – Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, dies in his sleep at the age of 60. * January 7 ** Tragic week (Argentina) ** Estonian Freedom War: The Soviet Army meets resistance from Estonian forces. * January 9 – Friedrich Ebert orders the Freikorps into action in Berlin. * January 10–January 12 – The Freikorps attacks Spartacist supporters around Berlin, Germany. * January 11 – Romania annexes Transylvania. * January 13 – Worker's councils in Berlin end the general strike; Spartacus Week is over. * January 15 ** Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are murdered following the Spartacist uprising. ** The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150. ** Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Premier of Poland. * January 16 – The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, is ratified. * January 18 ** World War I: A peace conference opens in Versailles, France. ** Bentley Motors is founded in England. *January 21 ** The First Dáil Éireann meets in the Mansion House in Dublin. ** An ambush of the police at Soloheadbeg marks the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. * January 23 – The Uprising of Khotin breaks out in Khotyn, Ukraine. * January 25 – The League of Nations is founded in Paris. * January 31 – 1919 Battle of George Square: British police battle strikers in Glasgow, Scotland. * Estonian Freedom War: The Red Army is expelled from the entire territory of Estonia. being detained by police during the 1919 Battle of George Square]] February * February 3 – Soviet troops occupy Ukraine. * February 6 – The Seattle General Strike begins. Over 65,000 workers strike. * February 11 ** Friedrich Ebert is elected President of Germany. ** The Seattle General Strike ends when Federal troops are summoned by the State of Washington's Attorney General. * February 14 – The Polish-Soviet War begins. * February 25 – Oregon places a one cent per US gallon (0.26¢/liter) tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax. * February 26 – An act of the United States Congress establishes most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park (see Grand Canyon National Park). * February 28 – Amanullah Khan becomes King of Afghanistan. March * March 1 – The March 1st Movement against Japanese colonial rule in Korea is formed. * March 2 – First Communist International meeting in Moscow. * March 3 – The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the conviction of Charles Schenck. * March 4 – Communist International (“Comintern”) founded. * March 5 – A. Mitchell Palmer becomes Attorney General of the United States through recess appointment. * March 9 – The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 breaks out. * March 15 – The American Legion forms in Paris. * March 21 – The Hungarian Soviet Republic is established by Béla Kun. * March 23 – In Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini founds his Fascist political movement. * March 31 – A general strike begins in the Ruhr. April * April 6–April 7 – The Bavarian Soviet Republic is founded. * April 12 – Murderer Henri Désiré Landru is arrested. * April 13 ** Amritsar Massacre: British and Gurkha troops massacre 379 Sikhs in the Punjab in India. ** Eugene V. Debs enters prison at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia for speaking out against the draft during World War I. * April 14 – The Emperor of Austria moves to exile in Switzerland. * April 15 – Save the Children Fund set up in the UK to raise money for the relief of German and Austrian children. * April 23 – The Constituent Assembly of Estonia convenes its first session. * April 25 ** The Bauhaus architectural movement is founded in Weimar, Germany. ** ANZAC day is observed for the first time in Australia. ** Pancho Villa takes Parral, Chihuahua, in Mexico, and executed by hanging both the mayor and his two sons. * April 30 – Several bombs are intercepted in the first wave of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings. May * May 1 ** A large left-wing demonstration in France leads to a violent confrontation with the police. ** Riots break out in Cleveland, Ohio; 2 people are killed, 40 injured, and 116 arrested. * May 3 ** Weimar Republic troops and the Freikorps occupy Munich and crush the Bavarian Soviet Republic. ** Amanullah Khan attacks British government in India. * May 4 – The May Fourth Movement opposes foreign colonizers in China. * May 5 – The League of Red Cross Societies is founded in Paris. * May 8 - Edward George Honey first proposes the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I, which later results in the creation of Remembrance Day. * May 9 – In Belgium, a new electoral law introduces universal manhood suffrage and gives the franchise to certain classes of women. * May 15 – Winnipeg workers launch a general strike for better wages and working conditions. * May 16 ** A U.S. Navy Curtiss aircraft (NC-4), commanded by Albert Cushing Read, departs from Trepassey, Newfoundland, bound for the Azores and thence to Lisbon, Portugal on the first transatlantic flight. ** The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna carried by British ships. * May 17 – The Committee of One Thousand forms to oppose the Winnipeg General Strike. * May 19 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, marking the start of the Turkish War of Independence. The anniversary of this event is also an official day of Turkish Youth. * May 23 – The University of California opens its second campus in Los Angeles. Initially called Southern Branch of the University of California (SBUC), it is eventually renamed the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). * May 25 – Volcano Kelut erupts in Java, killing about 20,000. * May 29 ** Einstein's theory of general relativity is tested/confirmed by Arthur Eddington's observation of a total solar eclipse in Principe, and by Andrew Crommelin in Sobral, Ceará, Brazil.Eclipse that Changed the Universe – Einstein's Theory of Relativity ** The (Republic of Prekmurje) formally declares independence from Hungary. * May 30 – By agreement with the United Kingdom, later confirmed by the League of Nations, Belgium is given the mandate over part of German East Africa (Ruanda-Urundi). June * June 2 – Several mail bombs are sent to prominent figures as part of the 1919 United States anarchist bombings. * June 4 – Women's rights: The United States Congress approves the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which would guarantee suffrage to women, and sends it to the U.S. states for ratification. * June 6 – The Hungarian Red Army attacks the Prekmurian Republic. * June 14 – Sir John William Alcock KBE DSC together with navigator Lieutenant Arthur Whitten Brown, piloted the first non-stop transatlantic flight from St. John's, Newfoundland to Clifden, Connemara, Ireland. * June 15 – Pancho Villa attacks Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. When the bullets begin to fly to the American side of the border, two units of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army crossed the border to repulse Villa's forces away from American territory. * June 17 – British Police Sergeant Thomas Green killed during the Epsom Riot by Canadian troops * June 21 ** Winnipeg General Strike: Royal Northwest Mounted Police fire a volley of bullets into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two of them. ** Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttles the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Scotland. Nine German sailors are killed. * June 23 – Estonian War of Independence – Battle of Cēsis: The Estonian army wins in Northern Latvia against the pro-German Baltische Landeswehr. * June 28 ** International Labor Organization (ILO) established as an agency of the League of Nations. ** The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I. July * July 2 – Syrian National Congress in Damascus. Arab nationalist announce independence. * July 6 – The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship. * July 7 – The U.S. Army sends a convoy across the continental U.S., starting in Washington, D.C., to assess the possibility of crossing North America by road. This crossing took many months to complete, because the building of the U.S. Highway System had not even commenced. * July 19 – The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established at the decree of the chancellory for foreign affairs.Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry official: result of overcoming obstacles by first Azerbaijani diplomats was international recognition in Versailles Today.az * July 21 – The dirigible Wingfoot Air Express catches fire over downtown Chicago. Two passengers, one aircrewman and 10 people on the ground are killed. However, two people parachute to the ground safely.Chicago Public Library Archive * July 27 – The Chicago Race Riot of 1919 begins when a white man threw rocks at a group of 4 black teens on a raft. * July 31 – Policemen in London and Liverpool strike for recognition of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers; over 2,000 strikers are dismissed. August * August 1 – Béla Kun's Soviet Republic collapses in Hungary. * August 3 – Romanian army liberates Timișoara from the Hungarian occupation. * August 4 – Romanian army occupies Budapest. * August 11 * In Germany, the Weimar Constitution is proclaimed to be in effect. (ratified) * August 18 – The Bolshevik fleet at Kronstadt, near Petrograd, Russia, on the Baltic Sea, is mostly destroyed by German warplanes and torpedo boats in a combined operation. * August 19 – Afghanistan gains independence from the United Kingdom. * August 16 – August 26 – First Silesian Uprising: The Poles in Upper Silesia rise against the Germans. * August 31 – The American Communist Party is established. September * September 6 – The U.S. Army expedition across America, which started July 7, ends in San Francisco. * September 10 – The Treaty of Saint-Germain is signed, ending World War I with Empire of Austria-Hungary. * September 10 – September 15: The Florida Keys Hurricane kills 600 in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida and Texas. * September 12 ** While working as a spy for the police, Adolf Hitler was ordered to monitor the German Workers Party. ** Gabriele D'Annunzio, with his entourage, marches into Fiume and convinces the Italian troops to join him. * September 22 – The Steel strike of 1919 begins across the United States. * September 27 – The last British Army troops leave Archangel, Russia and leave the fighting to the Russians. October * October 2 – President of the United States Woodrow Wilson suffers a serious stroke, rendering him an invalid through the end of his life - in 1924. * October 13 – The Convention relating to the Regulation of Aerial Navigation is signed. * October 28 – Prohibition in the United States is authorized: The United States Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. Prohibition did not go into effect until January 17, 1920, under the provisions of the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution. November * November 1 – The Coal Strike of 1919 begins. The United Mine Workers under John L. Lewis announce a strike for November 1, 1919. Final agreement comes on December 10. * November 7 – The first Palmer Raid is conducted on the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists are arrested in twenty-three different U.S. cities. * November 9 – Felix the Cat appears in Feline Follies, marking the first cartoon character to become popular. * November 10 – The first national convention of the American Legion is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (until November 12). * November 11 – The Centralia Massacre in Centralia, Washington results in the deaths of four members of the American Legion, and the lynching of a local leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). * November 16 – After Entente pressure Romanian forces withdraw from Budapest and let Admiral Horthy to march in. * November 19 ** The confirmation is announced of Einstein's general relativity theory, tested by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Crommelin during a total solar eclipse on May 29, 1919 FirstScience. ** The Treaty of Versailles fails a critical ratification vote in the United States Senate. It will never be ratified by the US. * November 27 * The Treaty of Neuilly is signed between the Allies and Bulgaria. * November 30 – Health officials declare that the global Spanish Flu pandemic has ended. December * December 1 – Lady Astor, the second female elected to the British House of Commons (first was Constance Markievicz), became the first female MP to take her seat. * December 5 – The Turkish Ministry of War releases Greeks, Armenians and Jews from military service. * December 21 – United States deports 249 people, including Emma Goldman, to Russia on the [[USAT Buford|USAT Buford]]. * December 25 – Cliftonhill Stadium in Coatbridge opens (the home of the Albion Rovers F.C.) They lose the match 2–0 to St. Mirren. Date unknown * John Maynard Keynes' book The Economic Consequences of the Peace is published in the UK. * Earl W. Bascom, rodeo cowboy and artist, along with his father John W. Bascom at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, designs and makes rodeo's first reverse-opening side-delivery bucking chute, now the world standard. * Les Champs Magnetiques, the first automatic book, is written by André Breton and Philippe Soupault. * XWA (now CINW), in Montreal, Quebec, becomes the first public radio station in North America to go on the air. * Various strikes occur in the United States: Strike of US railroad workers; The Longshoreman's strike; The Great Steel Strike; and a general strike in Seattle, Washington. * Female suffrage is enacted in Germany and Luxembourg. * The International Astronomical Union is founded in France. * The World League Against Alcoholism is established by the Anti-Saloon League. * The fictional character Ham Gravy debuts in Thimble Theatre Comics. * US President Woodrow Wilson promises eventual independence for Philippines, though subsequent Republican administrations see it as a distant goal. * John Moses Browning finalizes the design for the M1919 .30 (30-06) caliber medium machine gun, the first widely distributed and practical air cooled medium machine gun introduced to the US Military. It receives an official designation and production is started in the same year, a very uncommon happening. It is later reconfigured to shoot the .50 BMG (Browning Machine Gun) cartridge and is redesignated the M2 Browning .50 caliber heavy machine gun, which is still in use to this day after almost one hundred years of service, with no signs of being de-commissioned in even the far future. * Severe inflation in Germany has seen the Papiermark rise to 47 marks next to a American dollar by December, compared to 12 marks in April.http://www.historyhome.co.uk/europe/weimar.htm Births January–February * January 1 – J. D. Salinger, American novelist (The Catcher in the Rye) (d. 2010) * January 5 – Hector Abhayavardhana, Sri Lankan political theorist * January 10 – Amzie Strickland, American actress (d. 2006) * January 13 – Robert Stack, American actor (The Untouchables) (d. 2003) * January 14 ** Andy Rooney, American journalist (60 Minutes) (d. 2011) ** Giulio Andreotti, Italian politician * January 15 – George Cadle Price, first Prime Minister of Belize * January 23 ** Frances Bay, Canadian actress (d. 2011) ** Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist ** Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962) ** Bob Paisley, British football player and manager (d. 1996) * January 24 – Leon Kirchner, American composer (d. 2009) * January 25 ** Edwin Newman, American journalist and writer (NBC Nightly News) (d. 2010) ** Eula Beal, American contralto (d. 2008) * January 26 – Valentino Mazzola, Italian footballer (d. 1949) * January 27 – Ross Bagdasarian, American musician and actor (Alvin and the Chipmunks) (d. 1972) * January 30 – John C. Elliott, American politician and 39th Governor of American Samoa (d. 2001) * January 31 – Jackie Robinson, African-American baseball player (d. 1972) * February 5 ** Red Buttons, American actor (d. 2006) ** Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1996) * February 9 – Langdon Brown Gilkey, American Protestant ecumenical theologian (d. 2004) * February 11 ** Eva Gabor, Hungarian actress (Green Acres) (d. 1995) ** Eddie Robinson, American football coach (d. 2007) * February 12 ** Forrest Tucker, American actor (F Troop) (d. 1986) ** Ferruccio Valcareggi, Italian football player and manager (d. 2005) * February 13 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, American musician (d. 1991) * February 16 – Charlie Parlato, American musician (d. 2007) * February 18 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006) * February 20 ** Joe Krol, Canadian football player (d. 2008) ** James O'Meara, British Battle of Britain Spitfire Flying Ace (d. 1974) * February 24 – Árpád Bogsch, Hungarian international civil servant (d. 2004) * February 26 ** Rie Mastenbroek, Dutch swimmer (d. 2003) ** Mason Adams, American character actor (d. 2005) March–April * March 2 – Jennifer Jones, American actress (d. 2009) * March 4 – Buck Baker, American racecar driver (d. 2002) * March 7 – M. N. Nambiar, Indian film actor (d. 2008) * March 14 – Max Shulman, American comedic writer (d. 1988) * March 15 – Lawrence Tierney, American actor (d. 2002) * March 17 – Nat King Cole, African-American singer (Unforgettable) (d. 1965) * March 20 – Gerhard Barkhorn, German World War II fighter ace (d. 1983) * March 24 ** Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American author and publisher ** Robert Heilbroner, American economist (d. 2005) * March 29 – Eileen Heckart, American actress (d. 2001) * March 30 – McGeorge Bundy, U.S. National Security Advisor (d. 1996) * April 1 – Joseph Murray, American surgeon, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine * April 8 – Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (d. 2007) * April 13 ** Howard Keel, American singer, dancer and actor (Dallas) (d. 2004) ** Phil Tonken, American radio and television announcer (d. 2000) * April 16 – Merce Cunningham, American dancer and choreographer (d. 2009) * April 20 – Richard Hillary, British pilot and author (d. 1943) * April 22 – Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2001) * April 24 – Glafkos Klerides, Cypriot president (1993–2003) May–June * May 1 ** Dan O'Herlihy, Irish film actor (d. 2005) ** Mohammed Karim Lamrani, Prime Minister of Morocco * May 3 ** John Cullen Murphy, American comic strip artist (d. 2004) ** Pete Seeger, American folk singer and musician * May 4 – Dory Funk, American professional wrestler (d. 1973) * May 7 ** La Esterella, Flemish singer (d. 2011) ** Eva Perón, wife of Argentine President Juan Peron (d. 1952) * May 8 – Lex Barker, American actor (d. 1973) * May 14 – Denis Cannan, British dramatist, playwright and scriptwriter * May 16 – Liberace, American pianist (d. 1987) * May 17 ** Antonio Aguilar, Mexican singer and actor (d. 2007) ** Ronald Verlin Cassill, American novelist, short story writer, editor, painter, and lithographer (d. 2002) * May 18 – Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (d. 1991) * May 20 – George Gobel, American comedian (d. 1991) * May 23 ** Betty Garrett, American actress and dancer (d. 2011) ** Avraham Drori, Polish-born Israeli politician (d. 1964) * June 4 – Robert Merrill, American baritone (d. 2004) * June 11 – Richard Todd, Irish born British actor (d. 2009) * June 12 – Ahmed Abdallah, former President of the Comoros (d. 1989) * June 14 – Gene Barry, American actor (d. 2009) * June 19 – Pauline Kael, American film critic (d. 2001) * June 21 – Gérard Pelletier, Canadian journalist, politician, and diplomat (d. 1997) * June 26 – Richard Neustadt, American political historian (d. 2003) * June 30 – Ed Yost, American inventor (d. 2007) July–August * July 1 – Malik Dohan al-Hassan, Iraqi politician * July 6 – Ernst Haefliger, Swiss tenor (d. 2007) * July 7 – Jon Pertwee, British actor (d. 1996) * July 8 – Walter Scheel, President of Germany * July 13 – Grisha Filipov, leading member of the Bulgarian communist party (d. 1994) * July 15 – Iris Murdoch, Irish novelist (d. 1999) * July 19 ** Patricia Medina, English-born actress ** Dallas McKennon, American actor (d. 2009) * July 20 – Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, conqueror of Mount Everest (d. 2008) * July 31 – Maurice Boitel, French painter (d. 2007) * August 2 – Nehemiah Persoff, Israeli-American character actor * August 8 – Dino De Laurentiis, Italian film producer (d. 2010) * August 9 – Joop den Uyl, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1973 until 1977 (d. 1987) * August 11 – Ginette Neveu, French violinist (d. 1949) * August 13 – ** Rex Humbard, American television evangelist (d. 2007) ** George Shearing, Anglo-American jazz pianist (d. 2011) * August 14 – Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., American admiral (d. 1999) * August 15 – Benedict Kiely, Irish author and broadcaster (d. 2007) * August 18 – Walter Joseph Hickel, 2nd and 8th Governor of Alaska (d. 2010) * August 21 – Dalmiro Finol, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 1994) * August 25 – George Wallace, Governor of Alabama (d. 1998) * August 28 – Godfrey Hounsfield, English electrical engineer and inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004) * August 30 – Wolfgang Wagner, German opera director (d. 2010) * August 31 – Amrita Preetam, Indian poetess and author (d. 2005) September–October * September 1 – Gladys Davis, Canadian professional baseball player * September 4 – Howard Morris, American actor (d. 2005) * September 11 – Ota Sik, Czech economist and politician (d. 2004) * September 18 – Pal Losonczi, Hungarian politician (d. 2005) * September 21 – Fazlur Rahman, Pakistani Islamic scholar (d. 1988) * September 24 – Rick Vallin, Russian-American actor (d. 1977) * September 26 – Matilde Camus, Spanish poet and researcher * September 27 – James H. Wilkinson, English mathematician (d. 1986) * October 3 – James M. Buchanan, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate * October 4 – John Sawyer (Nancy Buckingham, Christina Abbey, Erica Quest, Nancy John, Hilary London), British romance novelist (d. 1994) * October 5 – Donald Pleasence, English actor (d. 1995) * October 6 – Mohamed Siad Barre, former President of Somalia (d. 1995) * October 7 – Zelman Cowen, Governor-General of Australia * October 9 – Jason Wingreen, American actor * October 11 – Art Blakey, American jazz drummer (d. 1990) * October 12 ** Doris Miller, American sailor (d. 1943) ** Mary Ainslee, American film actress (d. 1991) * October 16 – Kathleen Winsor, American writer (d. 2003) * October 17 – Zhao Ziyang, prime minister of the People's Republic of China (d. 2005) * October 18 ** Anita O'Day, American jazz singer (d. 2006) ** Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000) * October 22 – Doris Lessing, British writer * October 23 – Manolis Andronikos, Greek archaeologist (d 1992) * October 26 ** James E. Myers, American songwriter (d. 2001) ** Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1980) ** Edward Brooke, Senator from Massachusetts November–December * November 3 ** Jesús Blasco, Spanish comic book author (d. 1995) ** Spider Jorgensen, American baseball player and coach (d. 2003) * November 5 – Myron Floren, American accordionist (The Lawrence Welk Show) (d. 2005) * November 6 – Christoph Probst, German White Rose resistance member (d. 1943) * November 10 ** Mikhail Kalashnikov, Russian firearms inventor ** Michael Strank, U.S. Marine flag raiser on Iwo Jima (d. 1945) * November 14 – Lisa Otto, German soprano * November 15 – Roy Burden, Canadian World War II pilot (d. 2005) * November 18 – Andrée Borrel, French World War II heroine (d. 1944) * November 19 – Alan Young, English-born character actor * November 21 – Gert Fredriksson, Swedish canoer (d. 2006) * November 26 – Frederik Pohl, American science fiction writer * November 28 – Keith Miller, Australian sportsman (d. 2004) * December 4 – I. K. Gujral, Indian politician, Prime Minister of India (1997–98) * December 6 – Paul de Man, Belgian-born literary critic (d. 1983) * December 7 – Lis Løwert, Danish actress (d. 2009) * December 8 – Mieczyslaw Weinberg, Polish composer (d. 1996) * December 9 – William Lipscomb, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2011) * December 13 – Hans-Joachim Marseille, German World War II fighter ace (d. 1942) * December 14 – Margie Stewart, American model and actress (d. 2012) * December 21 – Ove Sprogøe, Danish actor (d. 2004) * December 31 – Tommy Byrne, baseball player (d. 2007) Deaths January–June * January 4 – Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1843) * January 6 ** Max Heindel, Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic (b. 1865) ** Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858) * January 7 – Henry Ware Eliot American industrialist and philanthropist (b. 1843) * January 15 ** Karl Liebknecht, German communist politician (b. 1871) ** Rosa Luxemburg, German communist politician (b. 1870) * January 18 – Prince John of the United Kingdom (b. 1905) * January 27 ** Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (b. 1877) ** French Ensor Chadwick, American admiral (b. 1844) * February 2 – Julius Kuperjanov, Estonian military commander (b. 1894) * February 17 – Wilfrid Laurier, seventh Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1841) * March 2 – Melchora Aquino, Filipino revolutionary hero (b. 1812) * April 4 ** Francisco Marto, Beatified, claimed to witness apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917 at Fátima, Portugal (b. 1908) ** William Crookes, English chemist and physicist (b. 1832) * April 8 – Franklin Winfield Woolworth, American businessman (born 1852) * April 9 – Sidney Drew, American actor (born 1863) * April 10 – Emiliano Zapata, Mexican revolutionary (b. 1879) * April 15 – Jane Delano, American nurse and founder or the American Red Cross Nursing Service (b. 1862) * April 27 – Anton Irv, Estonian military officer (b. 1886) * May 3 – Eugen Levine, German revolutionary (b. 1883) * May 4 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak general, politician, and astronomer (b. 1880) * May 6 – L. Frank Baum, American author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker (The Wizard of Oz) (b. 1856) * May 14 – Henry John Heinz, American businessman (b. 1844) * May 21 – Lamar Johnstone, American silent film actor & director (b. 1885) * June 29 – José Gregorio Hernández, Venezuelan medician and saint (b. 1864) * June 30 – John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1842) July–December * July 10 – Jean Navarre, French World War I fighter ace (b. 1895) * July 15 – Hermann Emil Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852) * July 18 – Raymonde de Laroche, French aviatrix, the first woman to receive an aviator s license (b. 1882) * July 26 – Edward Poynter, British painter (b. 1836) * August 1 – Oscar Hammerstein I, Polish-born theater impressario and composer (born 1847) * August 9 – Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Italian composer (b. 1857) * August 11 – Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-born businessman and philanthropist (b. 1835) * August 21 – Laurie Doherty, British tennis champion (born 1875) * September 22 – Alajos Gáspár, Slovene writer in Hungary (born 1848) * September 27 – Adelina Patti, Italian opera singer (born 1843) * October 7 – Alfred Deakin, second Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1856) * October 13 – Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1857) * October 18 – Viscount William Astor, American financier and statesman (b. 1848) * November 9 – Eduard Müller, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1848) * November 15 – Alfred Werner, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1866) * November 24 – William Stowell, American silent film actor & director (b. 1885) * December 2 ** Henry C. Frick, American industrialist (b. 1849) ** Evelyn Wood, British field marshal and Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1838) * December 3 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter (b. 1841) * December 19 – Martin Savage, IRA commander (b. 1898) Nobel Prizes * Physics – Johannes Stark * Chemistry – not awarded * Physiology or Medicine – Jules Bordet * Literature – Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler * Peace – Woodrow Wilson References * Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, 2002, Random House. * Paula Phelan, 1919 Misfortune's End, 2007, ZAPmedia. Category:1919